BURBANK, Calif. – The word “originality” is a sensitive one for Kevin Feige.

The ebullient president of Marvel Studios – who endorses the statement, “This is a great time to be a comic book geek” – arguably has more influence on the multiplex marquee than any person alive. And the fact that this contribution consists of various incarnations of The Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor is where the O-word figures in.

“We think that all of our movies are original in their own way,” says Feige, who has produced movies with a combined $8 billion in box office. “Even if there’s a part three, like Iron Man 3 last year, it’s as original as a part three can be.”

But there’s original and there’s original. Which is where Guardians of the Galaxy comes in.

One of Marvel Comics’ lesser-known titles, at least among the general public, Guardians is a motley Avengers-in-space, whose ranks include a mutant raccoon named Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), his ambulatory-talking-tree best friend (voiced by Vin Diesel, with dialogue that consists of only three words, “I am Groot”), a brute named Drax (WWE wrestler Dave Bautista) and a green-skinned alien assassin named Gamora (Zoe Saldana, best known for playing a blue-skinned alien in Avatar).

Leading these oddballs in their attempt to prevent a malevolent alien from seizing a cosmic powerball (and with it, control of the galaxy) is Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a.k.a. Star-Lord, who was abducted from Earth as a child and became an interstellar bandit. His prize possession: a Walkman full of ‘70s tunes that are the movie’s de facto soundtrack.

So yeah, let’s call Guardians of the Galaxy original. “I’m glad you brought that up,” Feige says of the O-word. “The real reasons to bring this movie out now was to expand our universe and respond to a call for something more original. We’re always pushing expectations of what a Marvel movie is. But it doesn’t get pushed any further than this movie – to the other side of the galaxy.

“They’re characters most people have never heard of. But when I think back to when I was watching movies, I’d never heard of RoboCop before I saw RoboCop. I’d never heard of Jaws, never heard of Close Encounters, never heard of Luke Skywalker or Marty McFly. I’d never heard of any of those until I saw them at the movies. And then I became obsessed and a huge fan. Everything is original at some point.”

Of course, die-hard comic book/genre fans can’t pony up a billion dollars of box office on their own. So there is a question of whether the general public will respond to this tongue-in-cheek intended-franchise without the built in cachet of a Captain America or an Iron Man.

“Ultimately, I think just because people may not have any preconceived idea of who these people are shouldn’t matter,” Feige says. “Hopefully, the posters are entertaining. Hopefully the trailers are entertaining. Hopefully that Marvel red block logo gives you some idea.”

And as Feige likes to point out, “when we announced Iron Man and Thor and Capt America, the press called that ‘the B team.’ As in, ‘Marvel doesn’t have X-Men and Spider-Man, so they’re calling out the B team.’”

Which brings you to one of the confounding issues surrounding Feige’s dream of a “Marvel Cinematic Universe.” Though Disney owns Marvel and most of its characters, three big fish are owned by other studios – Spider-Man by Sony, the X-Men and Fantastic Four by Fox.

In his time, Feige has worked on those franchises too. His introduction to Marvel came in Toronto, when he was an associate producer on the first X-Men movie. It was where he first absorbed the notion that small-scale/indie filmmakers (Bryan Singer on X-Men, Sam Raimi on Spider-Man) might make better superhero directors than so-called “action” directors would.

It’s a lesson on display this year after he hired the Russo brothers, best known for TV’s Community, to direct Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

For its part, writing and directing Guardians of the Galaxy fell to James Gunn, creator of the cult horror film Slither, and the 2010 indie film Super, with Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page.

“You really need somebody who can create an ensemble,” Feige says. “Some of my favourite scenes in this movie, and in The Avengers, are when the characters are just sitting talking. There’s a scene in this film when they ask what Peter Quill’s plan is. And he says, ‘I have part of a plan, I have 12% of a plan.’ That scene could be out of an independent comedy. It just happens to take place on a spaceship with characters with a lot of makeup – and a couple of characters that weren’t there on set and had to be produced with some very expensive computer graphics,” he adds with a chuckle.

On one hand, Feige says, “the best compliment I’ve heard about Guardians is that it seems like a stand-alone movie.” On the other, there are a couple of characters that have been referenced in other Marvel movies.

“There’s always that opportunity for things to cross over,” he says. In this film, Benicio del Toro’s character is The Collector, who made an appearance last year in the tag scene of Thor: The Dark World. There’s (the galactic villain) Thanos who makes a brief appearance in this film, who was last seen turning around and smirking at us at the very end of The Avengers.”

As for an end to the inter-studio Marvel rivalry, Feige says, “I don’t think it’s impossible. I just don’t think it’s likely anytime soon.”

In the meantime, there are loopholes, as when X-Men characters Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were introduced in an “Easter Egg” scene at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Quicksilver was also in X-Men: Days of Future Past this year. There are some very rare characters – Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch among them – that cross over.

“They’re very much a part of the Avengers family and they’re very much a part of the X-Men family. We split them. It’s an agreement. They (Fox) have everything that relates to them in terms of them being mutants and their father being Magneto. We have everything that relates to them as them being Avengers.